Alright, it's official!

Now I will have to start believing in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the possibility that Elvis might just be alive and living in Kempsey. The Gold Coast appears to be actually getting a winter this year. Granted, it's only two days old yet, but that's still two more than last year (or the year before that). It wasn't enough that temperatures dropped to freezing yesterday morning, today produced some more low temperatures. Actually, the night itself wasn't overly cold, overcast as it was. However, the day time temperatures simply didn't increase.

Today's ride was a century in the Tweed Valley, a very nice ride incidentally. Most of the day was ridden in temperatures of 11-14 degrees C, with a maximum of 16. In fact, it was only 13 when I got home at 1.40pm. The ride itself was great, opening with the climb of Tomewin.



Followed by the ups and downs through imposing scenery to Tyalgum.



Realising the nature of the day, I decided to capture some different forest types with the pictures in the back country. This is the part of the ride that really is amazing -- the sheer variety of flora species that exist in Mebbin National Park and surrounds.







I detoured after Stokers Siding, wanting a slightly hillier route. It was a little louder that I would have liked -- given the parade of literally hundreds of motorcycles travelling in the opposite direction. It's also worth mentioning the headwind that I was dealing with riding home, it actually got quite strong in the vicinity of Murwillumbah, and again on the coast. Still, I seem to be improving in that area, which is encouraging.

At present I'm still pulling up a little sore from these longer rides as I adjust to the bigger gearing on this bike, but there are definitely signs of improvement here as well. I had been a little demoralised in the short term after the double-century crash from a few weeks ago, but the tour last weekend seems to have fixed that. Today I really felt good, better than on a any century since March.